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DIRECTV takes this action reluctantly, as it has to date proceeded diligently to develop its 17/24 GHz BSS assets. DIRECTV has satisfied all payment obligations under its satellite construction contract with Space Systems/Loral, and recently completed Critical Design Review of this satellite along with the two other 17/24 GHz BSS satellites it is authorized to operate. Now that this preliminary work has been done, DIRECTV would have to commit to a rapidly escalating payment schedule to, among other things, cover the cost of long lead items and begin actual construction of DIRECTV RB-4. Unfortunately, in its ongoing review of the U.S. priority for this satellite under the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) rules, DIRECTV has reached the conclusion that claims of other administrations with superior priority (including Canada, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) are increasingly likely to result in actual satellites with priority over DIRECTV either at or close to its assigned position. For example, Canada has licensed one 17/24 GHz BSS operator at 111.1° W.L. and another at 113° W.L.

In these circumstances, DIRECTV cannot justify proceeding further to develop this authorization given the substantial risk that its investment of hundreds of millions of dollars could be rendered essentially useless due to the inability to operate in the presence of non-U.S.-licensed systems with superior ITU priority.2

Note the portion I bolded. DIRECTV has made progress on the other two BSS satellites. No details except looks like Space Systems/Loral has the contract for these two satellites as well.

So the way I read it, it sounds like they really didn't want to give up the license but looking at other claims for adjacent slots they felt they wouldn't be actually allowed to put a satellite there, or am I reading it wrong?

So the way I read it, it sounds like they really didn't want to give up the license but looking at other claims for adjacent slots they felt they wouldn't be actually allowed to put a satellite there, or am I reading it wrong?

Pretty much it. They don't want to spend hundreds of millions on a satellite they probably won't be able to operate in the US.

I wonder if behind the scenes they were unable to get a waiver on the milestones timelines until the courts cleared up the rights over the US. Or if they decided it wasn't even worth the effort based upon prior experience with the international courts.

There were a bunch of KA band filings for 97W from three companies on the day the server crashed - Directv, Hughes, and Inmarsat Hawaii.

Most of them were filed within seconds or a minute of each other.Going to be interesting to see how it shakes out. Sometimes, one gets it all and other times, they each get a percentage of the slot. Not sure how KA awards work.

I recall Echostar abandoning a KA slot a year or so ago. Can't remember where it was but this might be it.

There were a bunch of KA band filings for 97W from three companies on the day the server crashed - Directv, Hughes, and Inmarsat Hawaii.

Most of them were filed within seconds or a minute of each other.Going to be interesting to see how it shakes out. Sometimes, one gets it all and other times, they each get a percentage of the slot. Not sure how KA awards work.

I recall Echostar abandoning a KA slot a year or so ago. Can't remember where it was but this might be it.

Is this to be run on existing Ka compatible equipment, or is this for new (future) satellite launches?

That would be a surprise increase in bandwidth if there was an existing bird out there that did Ku and Ka, but the Ka was just disabled all this time until a proper license could be granted.

This is for the 97W slot. Directv holds a BSS license for that slot - it would be additional bandwidth but would require (at the least) a new LNB, since 97W is not part of the "core" 99-101-103 Directv arc of orbital slots.

"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!"Directv since 1997Will Work for Beer

Using these uplink facilities, the DIRECTV 97W system and associated ground Ka-band assets will be capable of transmitting over 200 channels of HD programming.

Is that 200 more, or the 200 they already have? Would they just move the two spaceways over there, and use that slot for as the application said, niche, foreign language, etc? Or are they talking about a new satellite they havent launched yet, which would be years down the pipe?

It's interesting that, according to that document, the only other ITU applications for the slot are from the UK, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia. I mean, WTF seriously? Those countries aren't anywhere close to 97W longitude.

Have you had the time to pull and research the document mentioned in Footnote 1 to see how/why this Ka slot came open? I'm curious is Directv will use any of its currently-licensed BSS slots as bargaining fodder to smooth this application. It seems to me that additional Ka bandwidth would better fit Directv's existing systems and plans than BSS systems, but I could be wrong.

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, the footnote refers to Echostar's surrendered license for that location.

Edited by LameLefty, 11 August 2011 - 06:42 PM.

"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!"Directv since 1997Will Work for Beer

Is that 200 more, or the 200 they already have? Would they just move the two spaceways over there, and use that slot for as the application said, niche, foreign language, etc? Or are they talking about a new satellite they havent launched yet, which would be years down the pipe?

240 more, assuming 5 per, which may be low considering newer technologies and the switch to SS/L for the sats.

Have you had the time to pull and research the document mentioned in Footnote 1 to see how/why this Ka slot came open?

Yep, Echostar, but I thought that was long ago. Haven't had time to dig much yet, been away. Man, I need to fix my FCC checker (broke when I switched to 64bit), also some recent changes to RB-1 and RB-2 for Puerto Rico and location.